


The Silent Killer

by lovesnarf (snarfette)



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Based on spoilers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 10:42:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15241638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snarfette/pseuds/lovesnarf
Summary: A little ficlet based on the spoilers about next week’s episodes where Robert and Liv fall victim to Lachlan’s murderous plotting.





	The Silent Killer

**Author's Note:**

> This is posted on tumblr too but thought I’d add it here too just in case anyone hadn’t seen it on there.   
> Carbon monoxide is known as the silent killer because it’s without smell, taste, colour etc so no-one notices it until it’s too late - in case you wanted to know where the title came from.

“Bloody charming,” Aaron grumbled to himself, half hoping that someone in the house would hear him. “First no-one answers their phone so no-one comes to meet me at the airport, and now no-one even bothers to answer the door. Don’t know why I bothered rushing back on an earlier flight. So much for surprising you all.”

He pushed his way through the door, banging his suitcase and bags against the door for effect, planning to alert everyone to his less than impressed mood.

The flat was eerily quiet and for a moment he wondered if they were all out, but then he saw Robert lying on the sofa, fast asleep beneath a blanket.

“Unbelievable,” Aaron chuntered under his breath. “Dead to the world at half eleven in the morning.” He considered throwing his bags onto the floor to startle Robert awake but then realised that maybe he’d had a rough night with Seb so waking him up like that might be unnecessarily cruel.

He kicked the door closed and lowered his bags to the floor and that was when he saw her. Liv was lying on the floor, unmoving.

“Liv!” he shouted, rushing to her side and shaking her shoulder.

She was completely unresponsive, her skin felt clammy and there was blood dribbling from a cut on her forehead. “Liv!” he cried again. “Come on. Please. Oh god.” He needed help: he needed an ambulance. He needed Robert to wake up and help him instead of sleeping through whatever had happened.

“Robert!” he snapped. “Robert, wake up!”

There was no response from the other man but Aaron was too busy fumbling his phone out of his pocket to notice. “Robert!” he shouted over his shoulder and then he paused and he actually looked at him properly.

Something was horribly wrong. Robert hadn’t so much as twitched even with Aaron yelling at him. And his face was awfully pale, a sheen of sweat across his skin. There were dark circles under his eyes. And he wasn’t moving at all. It didn’t even look like his chest was rising and falling like it should’ve been if he was in a deep sleep.

“Rob?” he said, much more quietly than before. Glancing back at Liv, he quickly made his way over to the sofa and, with a shaking hand, reached out to touch Robert’s face. He was cold, and like Liv his skin felt strange.

“Robert?” he called out to him, desperation seeping into his voice. “No. Oh god, no.” He started shaking Robert’s shoulder in panic. But nothing seemed to have any effect on him.

He looked between Robert and Liv and felt his heart pounding and bile rising in his throat. It was like he’d come home and walked straight into his own personal nightmare.

And then something flashed into his mind: some boring public health programme that Robert had made him watch months ago. And a report about carbon monoxide poisoning. There were only so many things that could cause people to pass out and be so unresponsive in their own homes, and carbon monoxide was one of them.

Aaron leapt into action. He knew he had to get them out of the house as soon as possible. It was an awful, gut-wrenching decision but he didn’t have time to think about it: he rushed back to Liv and grabbed her first. Her body was limp as he dragged her out of the flat and outside onto the driveway.

“Help!” he yelled as loudly as he could in the direction of the pub, knowing that there was bound to be someone milling around nearby. “Help!”

Then he left Liv and raced back into the flat. He threw the blanket away from Robert and hauled him up. He was much bigger and harder to manoeuvre, but he started dragging him towards the door. He was beginning to feel dizzy himself as he strained and breathed deeply with the effort of moving Robert who was a complete dead-weight. It just confirmed his fears that there had been a carbon monoxide leak at the flat.

He heard footsteps on the gravel outside and then another set running into the Mill.

“Aaron?” Cain said in confusion. He didn’t wait for a response, just grabbed Robert under one arm and helped his nephew to pull him out of the flat.

“Carbon monoxide,” Aaron told him grimly.

They carefully lowered Robert to the ground next to Liv outside and Aaron drew in a few deep breaths of fresh air, grateful to see that Zak was already on the phone to the emergency services. He dropped to his knees between the two people who meant the most in the world to him and squeezed his eyes closed. He couldn’t stop thinking about what would have happened if he hadn’t decided to catch an earlier flight. He couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that neither of them had moved or shown any sign of life since he’d found them. He wasn’t letting either of them go - he’d spent a long time waiting for everything to be perfect and he wasn’t about to lose that now.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m snarfettelove on tumblr.


End file.
